Get the [\h__\h] out of my country. Go here.
I must hold you here.
You don't do Muslims. No. Why you don't
do Muslims? Because of your attitude.
And he as soon as he sees these people
who are visibly Muslim, he starts
saying, yelling these expletives, get
the f out of my country. Is that the a
report was done and the person described
in the report had nothing to do with the
identity of that dentist. someone from
another from the bystanders to identify
who we then discovered is a licensed
dentist in the area. That's what was
most shocking. And so this is
the
danger. This is the danger.
This is the Dean Show.
Assalam alaikum. Greetings of peace.
Welcome to the Dean Show. We have some
questions. Very important questions we
want answers to.
8% here in the United States of America.
Anti-Islam, anti-Muslim incidents says
have gone up
reports
20% here in Florida.
and doctors are losing their jobs.
Attorneys are losing their jobs over
what? That's the kind of questions that
we need answers to. Doxing kids being
expelled from school incidents. Get this
kid being expelled from school. Uh not
because what he posted, because
something his mother actually posted.
So, I have here with me a top attorney,
a chaplain, communications director for
care who just recently wrote wrote an
article for the myiami Herald who's
featured Islamophobia is
surging. It is surging in Florida and it
must be addressed. And he goes into
these questions. He goes into giving
some of the answers. Here with me is
Will Fredo.
Brother Eddie, how are you doing?
Walaykum. Peace be with you. How you
doing? Alhamdulillah. Very good.
Alhamdulillah. Nice to be here with you
again. Nice to see it's been a while. It
has been a while. What nice and
beautiful studios. Uh, may Allah bless
them. Yeah. This is obviously your first
time coming to the Dean Center here now.
Yeah. The previous interview you went to
my office. Yes. I was at your office.
Now you're here at our studio. Yes. Yes.
I'm pleased to be here. Alhamdulillah. I
want to get into this video because it
goes into the topic um what we're
talking about and are these the kind of
incidences that are being reported
similar to what you're about to see
a Muslim. You don't do Muslims. No. Why
you don't do Muslims? Because of your
attitude. You suck. We suck. I You do. I
do. Because you come to this country and
don't behave yourself. You get the hell
out of here now. How? Or I'll call the
police. You don't touch me. Don't touch
me. Don't touch. Get out of here. Don't
touch me. Don't touch me. Don't touch
me. So, you're saying you're not doing
Muslim? No. So, what I hear him saying
is your attitude. It sucks. Uh, you
don't behave
yourselves. I mean, is there something
that we didn't see with this like this
case? Many cases, Eddie.
Uh that's obviously very worrisome
because it it means that our families
are are in feel endangered and at risk
when they just go out either to shop or
to have dinner in a restaurant. You will
have people some of them are not
ignorant people. We have a case in
Florida that the perpetrator of a
similar act even worse than this using
expletives to tell and get the out of my
country uh to a whole family including
minors
hijabis and uh he was a dentist. He's a
dentist. So these are not ignorant
people who are who are
uh they feel now empowered that nothing
is going to happen to them that it it
will have no
consequences because when you do it like
and you keep that conduct knowing that
you're being filmed then you're
disregarding any consequences like if
they are somehow assured that the
consequences are going to be none or
limited and that is the most worrisome
part of all this story. What happens
after we witness that? What we're
witnessing happening is something that
is worrisome because we're witnessing
that the law enforcement agents involved
and the state attorneys involved in the
criminal investigation do not want to
move forward prosecuting these
criminals. It's like a hey the guy had a
bad night or the guy is an elder or the
guy was just drunk. M like when we are
the victims and our community are the
victims, we're supposed to tolerate this
anti-Muslim conduct and the law
enforcement agents and the state
attorneys act accordingly because we
need our legal department need to push
these cases really hard, call after call
uh to make them face justice and face
our judicial system and try to face some
What could she have done? What do you
think? Why would someone I believe I
believe she was cuz you can identify
obviously you see a Muslim woman you
know she's Muslim course of her
appearance her appearance but there's
there are specific laws even in Florida
protecting people from being harassed
that way and
assaulted for what their religious garb
and this is exactly what happened to
this woman. There are laws. What the
problems we're seeing is that enacting
the laws for the first the law
enforcement to be educated that there's
a law that protect people from being
harassed and assaulted when they are
wearing whatever religious garb they
want to wear. And uh they they just
enforce it apparently selectively to
some religions or some the practitioners
of some religions. We seem that we have
observed that other people complaining
that are perhaps Jews or Christians that
this has happened to them. We see law
enforcement acting fast and efficiently
uh to protect the victims. But when
there are Muslims, it it is very
troublesome. It is like a hurdles race
that that that our attorneys need to
push as if there were no laws to protect
us. And the laws are there. Uh the
constitution is there to protect our
freedom of religion as well. But what we
are facing the most challenging times is
with the law enforcement supporting and
protecting our community. There was let
me tell you one incident that was
terrible. Almost a terrorist act
happened in Miami Beach. An individual
pulled a gun and start shooting 17
times.
17 times in the streets of Miami Beach
to a father and son thinking that they
were Palestinians. To this day, the
mayor of Miami Beach or the mayor of the
county have not assured the Palestinian
or Arabu populations or visitors in
their counties and cities that they're
going to be safe to this day. as if
because the victims are Palestinians or
the alleged victims were Palestinians or
prepared to be Palestinians is is that a
thing that we cannot speak about or
offer a public support to them when
precisely is the most needed. I assure
you if that individual who shot that 17
times his name was an Arabic name or a
Muslim name or a Hispanic name we will
be hearing the words extremism. We will
be hearing the word lone wolf. We will
be hearing the word uh terrorism when
addressing this situation. But this
happened the perpetrator was an Israeli
Jew shooting to what he thought were two
Palestinians but were two other Jews. Uh
and it it is seemed as if somebody just
stole something from a K or Walmart.
This is this is
not the way that we the community in
Florida and or in our nation expect the
authorities to react when when the
freedom of religion is being put at
stake like that and openly shooting
someone just because he's he I think
they were Muslims or the of because of
their ethnicity is even worse. Right? So
that
double ways to measure the the victims
and the perpetrators is something that
needs to be fixed. Not just for the
benefit of the Muslim community, for the
benefit of our society. You cannot have
anti-semitic crimes being prosecuted
with all the force of law and
anti-Muslim crimes not being enforced.
Mhm. The problem is that inaction of the
government and the inaction of law
enforcement that it affects all of us,
right? Okay. Now, that dentists, okay,
so this is an important point. This is
not some uh hillbilly. No, they're not
ignorant. There's people with studies,
people that have like the dentist like
this this recent case in Florida
involves a dentist insulting and
threatening. This is an educated manner.
Of course. And this is on tape. You got
this video. We got the video and we this
is one of the cases where Omar Sal one
of our attorneys got directly involved
with the police and directed. We have we
have um Omar Sal here Florida here to my
rightam. How are youam?
How are you Omar? Alhamdulillah. Doing
all right. Great for your brother. All
right, let's get into this video and you
give us a breakdown. How's that?
Good.
[\h__\h] kill
you.
Get the
[\h__\h] up.
You did not deserve.
You did not deserve my children.
Shoot your [\h__\h] ass [\h__\h]
[\h__\h]
You
[\h__\h] I really
had [\h__\h] kill you.
Don't leave. I'm
[\h__\h] I'll [\h__\h] kill you. Get the
Get the [\h__\h] out of my country.
Go here.
Get out of my country.
I'll disconnect.
Uh, I'm in the ventures in Liquid Ranch
and I have someone is threatening to
kill me and my family. Stay stay.
It's 10707.
Uh, Liquid Ranch Boulevard if I'm not
mistaken.
Oh, there he is.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, the pinchos.
My name is Al M. Sorry about that.
That's okay.
So, what's happening here? Give us a
He's So, there is a family, a Muslim
family of six. Um, a brother, his wife,
and their four kids. Three of them are
hijabi
minor young girls and they all went to
to a restaurant. As they were waiting in
line for their table, as they were
sitting waiting for a table, somebody
comes up to them. Uh well, he was seated
and he as soon as he sees these people
who are visibly Muslim, he starts saying
yelling these expletives, "Get the f out
of my country. Get the [\h__\h] out of my
country." And it happened over a course
of several minutes. He keeps doing it.
He starts getting louder. What's
disturbing about this is that these kids
were born and raised in Florida. These
are Americans. There's They are
Americans and they're being told because
of their hijab to get out of it. He was
threatening to kill them. He said, "I'm
I want to kill you." In the other video,
he threatens to kill them multiple
times. That's the time when they're
reporting it. Definitely. So, he's on
the phone of police. Yes. He's calling
the police. uh bystanders come to he he
created a disturbance. So bystanders
come to the scene to see what's going
on. He's walking around. He keeps going.
He doesn't just walk away. He stands up.
And then in the other video you'll see
him uh just make make some more
statements. Extremely disturbing.
Multiple expletives in front of these
kids. Extremely offensive. Um and racist
language just being hurled at them. just
clearly when you look at him somebody
who has issues or is under the influence
of something that was everybody's really
immediate reaction and that was the
concern of the bystanders when this guy
gets up and just goes in his car and
tries to drive away. Are these all the
videos here? There's one more video of
the sheriff when the sheriff does
arrive. Okay, so this is the one with
the kids now with the sheriff, right?
Dinner and let's ignore them. Okay,
don't let that don't let that ruin you
guys either. Okay. Yes. Easier said than
done. We can't ignore somebody saying
that you want to kill us and shoot us in
public place. I will do a report for
you. Thank you. All right. Nice to meet
you, guys. Okay. Bye-bye, guys. So, is
this sheriff deputy telling the kids,
"Don't let this guy ruin your dinner.
He's just he's just trying to make these
excuses for him. Um, not real realizing
that he's probably already a danger in
the street." You can hear uh the the
father tell the the sheriff's deputy,
"This guy's threatening to kill us, and
you just want to let him let him go like
that." And the sheriff says, "I'll file
a report." That's when we got involved.
The funny part that is funny in a bad
way is that the a report was done and
the person described in the report had
nothing to do with the identity of that
dentist.
someone from another state of another
race was the person specified in the
police report. Could you believe that?
So what what we think happens is it
happens several times is that police
officers come to a scene and don't take
a case like this seriously, which is
extremely offensive. And had it been to
any other faith, they would have taken
it um a lot more aggressively. As soon
as we looked at the report, we see that
they identify a black person who lives
in Jacksonville. And what's clearly on
the video is a white person. Um we we we
had to do our own work through the
license plate that was caught from the
bystanders to identify who we then
discovered is a licensed dentist in the
area. That's what was most shocking. And
so then so then we're talking with the
detectives saying, "Hey, what happened
was uh a hate related crime based on
784.0493,
0493 a statute that's relatively new
passed by Governor DeSandis uh a few
years ago. It's pretty new and a lot of
people don't even know about it, not
even police. What is it called? Florida
statute 784.0493
0493. A and it um it makes any person
who harasses or intimidates another
person based on their ethnic or
religious indisha uh possibly uh liable
to a misdemeanor or even more if it's
coupled with a threat to injure. And
what we had here is exactly what we
believe fell under the statute. But
first, it's just a matter of even
getting to an arrest because even if
it's not under a a hate related statute,
this guy caused a disturbance. And in
any other context that you see somebody
doing this, he would be arrested for um
disorderly conduct at the very minimum,
if not assault to what he did to this
family. But the sheriff is telling uh
the detective who got assigned only
after we got involved is saying that
well, I spoke at this person. He was
having a rough day. Ultimately, it was
his freedom of speech. My response to
him was that we'll let the public
decide. He didn't know what I meant.
Well, Fredo uh through his
communications team, they let out
several videos of the incident with text
showing what was clearly a hate crime
after the media caught wind of it. It
was only within 48 hours that the
prosecutor's office and the sheriff's
department office called us to say that
they were going to be um filing an
arrest warrant for the person.
So after you did what you did in having
them enforce the law 784, this law
called 784, now they took initiative to
go ahead and arrest him. They they made
it. Yes, they did arrest and they did
cite that statute in in the uh arrest
paperwork. Ultimately, spoiler alert,
they didn't end up convicting under the
statute, but they did charge with
disorderly conduct. wouldn't have
happened at all had we not not only
dealt with the police but then the
prosecutors who are reluctant to push
cases like this for whatever reasons
they have but it did take several months
of us working directly with the prosecu
prosecutor's office to to file charges
and and as you see is legal pressure
from our attorneys and media pressures
putting out a press conference a press
release uh making more public these
videos these videos went viral. It was
only then that we acted and we see that
the story did not ended with a victory
for justice at the end of the row. Why?
Because this individual was just charged
from disorderly conduct after
threatening a Muslim family just for the
way they looked. What is your opinion? I
mean, what do you think would have would
have happened? This shouldn't have be
happening to anybody, Christian, Jew,
anybody who's um minding their own
business, obviously taking their family
out. I want you to put yourself in that
predicament. You're um you're going a
nice day out, taking the kids out,
family out, and then you got this uh
lunatic over here talking about get out
of my country. They're American and then
he's threatening their life. What do you
what do you honestly think would have
happened if this was um um because they
identified he identified them being
Muslim probably by the lady wearing what
Jesus' mother wore, the hijab, right?
Yes. What do you think if this was a
Jewish family? What do you think would
have happened? We have multiple or we
know of multiple cases of anti-semitism
that we see a totally different response
from law enforcement acting promly and
swiftly and the prosecution prosecutor
moving swiftly to prosecute before the
courts. And they're not prosecuting
those cases for disorderly conduct.
they're prosecuting for what it is, hate
crimes or uh perhaps that that statute
that the Santis uh uh signed in in
Florida to protect people wearing any
kind of religious guard. When you look
at the legislative history of bills
being passed in Florida, such as the
anti-semitism bill, uh not to say that
it's not important to combat
anti-semitism, but should be equally
applied to hate toward any religion. So
a statute like 784 is you know we
believe passed not necessarily for the
Muslims and in this case not even being
applied to for the Muslims. Yeah that's
it should be across the board like I
said this shouldn't be happening to any
anyone any anyone and what is what
worries us all is what makes the
perpetrators believe that they can act
with impunity because this is not an act
of I insult you five seconds I leave.
This guy stood in front of this family
for over a minute insulting them. And we
have other cases of woman being spat on
in for
Loro because she she appeared to be
Muslim man. Someone came to to her as
she was paying and spat on her on her
face just came and spit on her and I
might have that one too that video. Uh
so so we're seeing evident aggressions
happening to families that that's what
is worries and what makes me believe the
people who who commit these crimes on
Muslim families that they're not going
to be prosecuted with the full strength
of a law. Uh that's what worries us. And
as you can see, this is systemic
breakdown of of this of of of the
implementation of the justice apparatus
from the law enforcement when we have in
the case of the
dentist a a a detective and a policeman
or a sheriff who
misidentified the perpetrator to then
the lo the state attorney who's supposed
to be the highest authority of law
enforcement in your county. just laying
back and saying, "Hey, I don't see a
case here. This guy was just drunk. This
is an elderly poor guy. Uh, this is I
don't see a big crime happening." And he
ended up perhaps to shut the media out
and shut the pressure accusing the
individual of disorderly conduct when
this was this guy was filmed
communicating a threat. We're talking
about a licensed professional. So, when
somebody gets behind his chair, if it
happens to be a Muslim, what is he
thinking? And several years before that,
this the story that Wfredo told about a
lady getting spat on at a Walgreens
because of her hijab, she was a licensed
therapist. Just two months ago in Lee
County, somebody was at a Costco wearing
a free Palestine shirt. When he walked
out of the Costco, he saw uh two Stars
of David carved into his car when they
pursued the person for uh vandalism. He
was a licensed radiologist in Lee
County. We're talking about not
degenerates as you might compare to
other, you know, these are like educated
uh certified people who actually might
treat a Muslim that uh that that's
what's really most concerning. And it's
that um that brazeness that Wilfredo was
talking about that's that's a huge
concern. But more concerning is that the
lack of attention by by a lot of law
enforce not to say that there's not a
lot of agencies who do take cases to to
the fullest extent but a lot of times we
have to be behind them police and
prosecutors. That's part of our victim's
rights team. There have been a cases I I
I'm going to give you an example. There
was a bomb threat received in Penro
Pines Islamic Centers in Florida and uh
Penro Pines police. It was expected.
It's a local police. they wouldn't
perhaps prosecute that. Uh but as soon
as the FBI stepped up, it ended up in
the in the prosecution of the individual
who communicated that bomb threat to the
Islamic center. So, we have had some
cases that that we we see law
enforcement acting as they're supposed
to, but too many of those where where we
need to just beg for justice and for beg
for the apparatus to oil the machinery
of justice to work while we always need
to oil it when it's our turn and is
already oiled and ready and running for
others. So, when I opened up the
program, I quoted um what you were
telling me, 8% nationwide of anti-Islam,
anti-Muslim sentiment going up, 20%
here. What do you think is causing that?
You've never, you said you've never seen
that? No. In your whole career as a the
volume I I haven't seen two things in in
my career. The volume that from 300
complaints, it jumped to 400 complaints
in just in a single year. and the nature
of those complaints. No longer are
people complaining exclusively that they
have been harassed because of the way
they look like the examples we we just
posted in these videos, but people being
punished or losing their jobs or being
doxed or harassed because of their
stance against the Israeli aggression on
Israeli war and war crimes against the
people of Gaza. If you criticize the
state of Israel or you stand for the
people of Gaza, those in those two
instances, you're going to be accused of
two things. Either you're a terrorist
sympathizer or you're an anti-semitic
individual. And that goes to the whole
spectrum. affecting people in the media,
affecting people in the academia,
affecting people in the government,
affecting people in the private industry
where people to conduct businesses with
the government. Some of our community
members have been
h presented a a contract when they need
to certify they will not boycott the
state of Israel in order to get the
contract with the
government as a clause protecting a a
third state when you don't have it even
to protect our own nation. So you can
boycott any American product or any
president's businesses. You can call for
that. It's perfectly legal. But if you
call it for the president of Israel or
for the state of Israel for a boycott,
now you're an anti-semitic and a
terrorist sympathizer.
But now we have a different world. A
world where the normal allies and
countries who will never say a word to
criticize that are opening up
the many multiple countries in Europe
now now with a stance similar to those
stands for the people that has been
punished perhaps for standing for the
people of Gaza or calling for a
ceasefire or telling Israel have
committed war crimes in this the war
with the Palestinians so people can a a
uh a holistic perspective. I want to
just play this clip because it goes into
now criticizing what's happening there.
And this is coming from uh Joe Rogan.
Reasonable person would look at Gaza and
go, "This seems kind of excessive. This
seems kind of [\h__\h] crazy. Seems kind
of crazy that 70,000 people or whatever
it is are dead, including women and
children. Like, this is the only way to
do it." Really, any reasonable person.
That doesn't make you anti-semitic. It
doesn't make you anti-Zionist. Doesn't
make you anything. It just like doesn't
make you pro- Hamas. Like, no. Could be
pro-human. Yeah. Human beings. I don't
think humans should be murdered. Yeah.
There's like that sounds so reasonable.
question of what I think is causing the
uptick in incidents like this is the
racist rhetoric and prejudice not just
by the mainstream echo chambers of
racists that we know but we're coming
from elected officials like
representative Randy Fine who openly in
public spews hatred toward Muslims as a
whole and when people look at uh tweets
from somebody who holds public office it
makes them think that well if they do
something why why should they be
reprimanded? same with anybody in power
who isn't being inclusive and is making
insults toward any faith which we can
cite several examples. I think that
directly is a cause of the uptick. But
um and then I guess not to like shift
immediately. I know the team can work
the magic, but on the suppression and
the shifting the definitions of what
anti-semitism is like this in in this
video is extremely dangerous because it
waters down true anti-semitism. Were
some of the first people to call out if
there's ever vandalism toward a
synagogue or a Jewish person. But when
we say free Palestine and they put us in
that same bucket, extremely dangerous
for Jews and also clearly um uh the
movement to end the genocide and that's
exactly what the strategy is to for
suppression. We see it from the top down
and and there have been always
significant levels of of anti-Muslim and
Islamophobic sentiment. When Omar
started working with us nine years ago,
one of the first events that he needed
to be directly involved was working with
the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce that
was burned to the ground by an extremist
Jewish. None of
the media coverage mentioned the
religion of the perpetrator. We did not
mention it because it has nothing to do
this was a criminal who just burned a
mosque out of hate for Muslims. It could
be Jew. It could be even a Muslim who
hates
Muslims. But you see how that is treated
totally different. When that individual
committed the crime, the religion, his
political views were not of no public
discussion.
Uh that type of crimes, even that type
of crimes have happened here in Florida.
that where multiple musts have been
burned as a matter of fact, but that one
was burned to the ground. Any reasonable
person would not attribute an action of
one to an entire religion. But the
problem is our public officials are
doing just that and and that's what's
making it most dangerous. I believe we
are in a state similar to that uh
immediately after the September 11. our
community. We probably don't want to
recognize it that we're we are being
pushed to that limit where we're being
uh the consequences it has had in our
kids with our kids in schools with us in
our jobs uh uh and also in the public
life uh safety and security concerns. We
are in no in levels no less than those
that I suspect the community were
immediately after September 11. uh and
the rhetoric and the discourse still
have not uh gotten any better. But on
the contrary, the levels of repression
are being to those who speak against
war. Even if you're a pacifist, even if
you notwithstanding which are the
parties this country have criminalized
the pacifists of this country, the legal
system is after the pacifist. It's not a
matter of Gaza or no Gaza. There has
always been in our history a significant
part of our population that are
pacifists. They have been against the
Vietnam war. They have been but those
people that are praised today
were repressed back then. So the same is
happening with this war crime. The
people that are exposing the war crimes.
We have a totally what Americans need to
understand is that we have a totally
different discourse here in America
regarding the conflict and the war in
Gaza than the rest of the world. The
rest of the world is discussing that
there are war crimes being filed against
heads of state of Israel. The rest of
the world is discussing how we going to
detract the state of Israel for
committing more war crimes. This is the
public discourse in the rest of the
world and we want to pretend we live in
a in a bubble where we go to hear the
version of the American government and
the Israeli government and just take it
as true. So now that more and more
countries and more and more media are
daring to perhaps expose a little of the
truth there is is is when they are
facing the perhaps the most challenges.
So we need to open our minds and perhaps
media has helped us that way seeing that
that
was fully intended to be repressed and
not shown to anyone. The war camps that
were happening there. What do you think
when when we um showed the video earlier
of the woman who was taking her son to
go get a haircut and then the barber
refused to cut, you saw that video,
right? to cut his hair and he kicked him
out and he said uh she said why are you
doing this? He said your attitude. What
else? He said um you guys don't behave
here. So what I mean where what is he
seeing? What um what is he identifying
Muslims with? What is he seeing? And did
he did do you think he was she
misbehaving? Did she have a bad
attitude? That what David Eddie people
that hate this is what we are trying to
convey the general public. Yeah. that
haters will hate for no reason. The same
people that are anti-Muslim today will
be an anti-Semite tomorrow will be an
anti-lack the day after because these
are people that hate anything that they
perceive different from themselves or
their ideology. Wouldn't you say that
being anti-Muslim is actually being
anti-semitic? Because most Muslims are
Seemetic. Yeah, we we've heard it. Yes.
And it always applies, but people don't
hear it. people uh fear what they don't
know and hate what they fear. They a lot
of people just still 20 years later um
they just don't even want to know about
Muslims. They just listen to what's
being shown to them by the people in
high places. And that's why it's
incredibly dangerous. They look at it
without even knowing a Muslim. See see
what they see on social media and paint
a broad picture when we know not to do
that. Nobody should be doing that. I I'm
sorry. I I talking about the same
incident on the barber shop. I I believe
this this lady first there's nothing in
her behavior that that was was wrong. I
believe there something in her behavior
that she endangered herself when she was
filming the the what was going on as she
was being asked to leave and not to
leave as fast as she could from that
from that premises. She put in risk her
her safety and her son's safety at risk,
right? But other than that, whenever you
face an act like this mother face, if
you can film it, that's the first thing
you should do. Try to open a mic, open a
video, start documenting what's going
on, but think of your safety first. You
say, "You don't want to let me super
document this. I'm putting my families
or my own safety at risk." What do you
as two attorneys now? What is the
situation now taking this situation and
what is his um right now? His right does
he have a right not to cut his hair?
Does he have a right to um and if you
find yourself in the situation where
obviously he's kicking her out because
she's Muslim like what um what laws is
he breaking? And then what should she do
right away? Oh my. Could you could you
tell what is if she he he's being kicked
out if she's being kicked out just for
her race or religion? Absolutely. That
will be an accommodation issue because
that the barber shop is a a place of of
accommodation. They cannot So he's
breaking a law. Yes. Yes. Now the thing
is like Wolfredo said and of course as
attorneys we're always going to say you
know we want to see the full picture.
Was there anything before the video that
could have transpired? But just that's
all I was asking. Okay. What in that
short amount of time was she was her
attitude? Was she misbehaving? I didn't
see anything. And I would hope in
whatever state she's in, was this in
Florida? Uh I don't know what whatever
state they should definitely contact an
attorney soon and and explore possible
um causes of action for it. It shouldn't
be. I mean, if this guy wants to cut
hair in private, that's one thing. But
if he's holding himself out to the
public, he can't do that. Sometimes
people refuse to serve a refusal of
service, but they don't give any
explanation. Mhm. And that's precisely
to protect himself that my my inner
explanation was that I don't like
Muslims. Right. But in this case was
totally different. This this guy was
exposing his motives. I don't like you.
I don't like your people. I don't like
your beliefs. Leave. I'm not going to
serve you. We've had similar cases like
that which are much more serious in in
popular chain restaurants when a a
lady's going to go in and make an order
and they actually call the police on
her. A woman came to a gas station in in
in Broward. many years ago uh and and
gave 20 to pump two and the guy threw
the 20 back to her. say we don't serve
your kind of people like that and she
was a hijabi sheriff king sheriff tried
to persuade the individual hey she just
want service she's poses no threat no
she's has a hijab she cannot be I'm
afraid of my
safety so where was this in Broward
County perhaps like eight nine years ago
uh and I a gas station so she's trying
to gas and he threw her money back threw
money back and we don't serve your kind
of people. Those were his words. We
cannot reveal any more details because
of legal aspects. But but but it wasn't
an easy ride for the gas station after
our legal team got involved. Yeah. Yeah.
So, but that that happens and that kind
of refusal of of service open refusal of
service.
It's nothing new that hasn't happened in
history, but what we're seeing now is
that people are being more uh brazen
about it. They feel like right now they
can do it. They can live like what we
learned from the past is extremely
wrong. But but now based on what our uh
from our president to other elected
officials are are portraying to entire
races and religions, they feel that they
can do it. these people that are have
been always in our societies, Eddie, but
the haters, the the anti-Muslim, the
anti-semites, the racist, these are
people that have been operating in the
margins because the mainstream society
say, "Hey, we don't we don't want your
voice to be at the center of the public
square, at the center of the media." So
those forces that were marginalized
intentionally by our laws and our
society because they were intolerant,
they were anti-Muslim and racist or
xenophobes in any way.
Now for the past perhaps 10 years they
have moved to be part of the main
square discourse giving audience in the
media giving importance to our
politicians giving a space in the in the
business world to lead them and use them
as as examples.
uh and and that what affects is not the
Muslim community. We have said it
before. This really affects the true
fabric of America because what makes
America different and stronger than many
other nations is not the fact that
they're rich. Is the fact that this is a
nation where all people from a lot of
religions have been able to synergize
and make and and make this nation strong
and safe as it is today. If you want to
take that out of the equation, this the
diversity, the strength that our
diversity brings to this nation, you're
breaking the the root of the main root
of what makes this nation strong. It is
a nation where anybody of any religion
is supposed to be respected of or of no
religion are supposed to be respected
and treated equal. And that that was a
moving factor for our founding fathers
to cross an ocean and establish this
nation looking for that still in the
21st century being violated by this
state. I quoted a study that I think it
was care and it was talking about the
Islamophobic industry. It was like a
quarter of a million dollar industry.
And then one of my shows, one of my
guests
um from Soundvision, Abdul Mujahid, I
quoted this. He said, "No, you're
wrong." Millions, hundreds of millions.
He said it's a billion dollar industry.
So care said it was a care was on the
low end. Said it was a quarter of a mill
multi-undred million dollar industry. It
was like 250 million. But then he said,
"No, it's a billion dollar industry." I
said, "How's that?" He said, "Because if
you equate all the media networks, Fox
News and all these are billion-dollar
industries." So, uh, would you say
that's accurate? It is. It is. And al
although the mainstream what we used to
know as mainstream media have themselves
try to stand away from from those
political stances right of opinion of
Muslims and religions. As a matter of
fact, when Fox News, local Fox News
nationwide interview us or any incident,
there is not the the national Fox News,
especially the shows that we see from
6:00 to 900 p.m. is it acts really as a
mainstream other mainstream media. They
are not that politically charged as the
central studios in the night shows,
right? Mhm. So uh that means that media
do recognize our presence nationally and
in Florida. Right. In Florida we are
over half a million Muslims. Florida is
the third state with most Islamic
centers probably passing 200 Islamic
centers in the whole state. So our
presence no longer can be ignored.
Right. As a matter of fact, this year
after the effort of of our policy team
and many other allies is the first year
that the Florida legislature, both the
House and the Senate passed a resolution
uh naming May, this last month, the
month of May, uh as the American Muslim
History uh Muslim Heritage Month uh and
it's the first time that both chambers
uh uh adopt a resolution. It's not a
law, but it we think is a good first
step to first acknowledge that we are
here, who we are, and our contributions
to this state before asking them or them
being inclined and willing to pass
specific legislation to protect us
instead of in broader general terms,
very specific they have passed to other
religious minorities. H have have you
seen in these cases any that people are
recommended as a part of their community
service that now they do sensitivity
training and then they're sent to maybe
go to a mosque talk to Muslims and then
has that been successful because I'm
sure your yourself I mean if people look
at your story you were actually
Christian at one time you accepted Islam
I did that interview with you and if
people were to sit with you talk with
you I'm sure many of these people who
have much of this hate fil rhetoric if
they sit they get their answers they get
educated properly you know hearts can
change you know it does so have have you
seen any um recommendations towards
sensitivity trainings in any any of
these cases that people are sent to go
um go through visiting a mosque and uh
has this happened has so you know with
every case being different like in our
victim's rights it's usually an apology
letter and anger management courses and
maybe but it hasn't been at least with
our criminal cases hasn't been tied with
something like visiting a mosque but we
do do sensitivity training to law
enforcement agencies law enforcement
this is really important Islam 101's
just to know the basics of if somebody
has to affectuate an arrest you know how
they should treat if they're entering uh
a masjid to affect a search warrant or
or talk to somebody because on the other
end we're we're educating our community
on what to do and not to do when you're
approached by law enforcement. So it
really bridges the gap um when we do do
those. But with the PE when to answer I
think this I don't know too many people
that couple like an individual
sensitivity training but with a um
entities companies that we've sued in
the past for lack of accommodation or
maybe searching somebody uh we sued a
cruise line because they searched a
hijabi lady. That's going to include
yeah some some sensitivity training
toward Muslims. it's more on the
institute uh the the corporate level
that we can implement those less with
individuals but it's it's something that
I think if we can implement it it's a
and talking about the refusal of
services the South Florida Muslim
federation that is an umbrella
organization that has over 32 members
that are all Islamic centers or Islamic
schools or Islamic organizations
uh s uh marri
because they refused to hold their
conference. They call it off a few days
because they seated to some pressure of
some callers and people who start
emailing them say hey terrorists are
going to do this event. This is an event
safety and security and with a totally
baseless approach call off an event. How
long ago was this? There was a two years
ago, right? Two years and the case still
ongoing to this day here here in
Florida. here in Florida still ongoing
the case. They have not been negotiated
yet. There were other cases too that no
I wish I wish I could talk about them
but we can't talk about them. But there
are some that because they they are
closed with a confidentiality agreement.
You're not supposed to give any specific
that one in Marriott is ongoing. No
agreement has been reached yet. So
that's why we can make it. So much of
this hate, I mean, would you say it's
built on a on a on a false
um false picture that's been painted to
people thinking that and most of these
things when you go deep, this is
geopolitical, you know, these are events
that are, you know, when I interviewed a
a the director of if Americans only knew
and she's a Christian lady and she was
telling me that this is an orchestrated
effort by certain Zionist organizations
that have been set up spreading this
misinformation about Muslims and Islam
to create this kind of atmosphere. This
is not some kind this conspiracy theory
but and she pointed out to the certain
particular groups. There are at present
some sinus groups that openly for
example associate my organization care
with a terrorist organization. They they
do that. Uh but our community cannot
lose sight that the Muslims have been
prosecutors since the first shahada.
Yeah. Uh uh uh and by the state by other
state by people committing treason
within your state. Uh so we have been
practicing a religion that have been
spreading and growing exponentially in
the whole world for the past 1400 years.
erh
notwithstanding the levels of oppression
that they go up to the extremes of wars
and to the extremes of ethnic cleansings
that the ones that happen in Alandaloo
that I was just reading an article last
week where he says where uh someone is
documenting as a factual with a factual
scientific basis the ethnic cleansing of
Morisos in the 16th century of Spain. So
even inif in in the 16th 17th century
there were there were the ethnic
cleansing that started in 1492 did not
ended up until a couple of hundred years
from Spain. So that kind of information
and evidence that where people see this
is how this community worldwide
community of Muslims have spreaded
around the world and have have survived
notwithstanding
uh the greatest powers of the world at
this being against them. Right? We we
hear of
empires trying to squash them the the
growth of Islam. you then the truth is
that no one have been able to stop the
growth that right now is growing at
level unprecedented is the fastest
growing religion in Latin America is the
fastest growing in Latin America where
is is is the fastest growing religion
here in America uh uh what we see is
churches diminishing in population and
these are factual and churches
diminishing in in in those that visit
them and and more mosques being open and
the and
the the congregations of the mosque keep
growing more schools. So the reality of
this nation is
that Muslims is the fastest growing
religion. So if you are not acquainted
with a
Muslim, you should try to make an effort
and perhaps if you're not Muslim, reach
a Muslim and say, "Hey, don't be
offended. May I ask about your religion?
What is it that your beliefs could you
share a little of your most mus welcome
that exactly? Uh and I believe it will
go a long way. It will go a long way
because more and more will be it will be
more common that the teacher of your son
will be a Muslim or the doctor taking
care of your son or yourself will be a
Muslim. Yeah. and and because the the
growth and in the and the ramifications
of employment that we have decided are
ramifications that are in in a great
deal of contact with the broader
community university professors,
doctors, engineers,
uh business owners, market owners. So
these are people that contact and affect
thousands of peoples in their
surroundings. Right. I want to uh go
ahead and get your reaction because when
we talk about some of the root causes
for some of this hate, it stems from
exactly what this person is going to um
go ahead and talk about right here in
this video. I'm to the point now where I
I don't think I fought for the country.
I fought for some politician's view on
something. There are particular guys
that I think of that I killed and I
remember one dude in particular that I
killed and like I shot his buddy and
then I came through his room. I killed
him in front of his wife in a bedroom
because he went for a gun. And I think
about him now and it's like, "All right,
why did I kill that guy?" "Well, because
he went for a gun." Okay, but why did he
go for a gun? Well, because I was in his
[\h__\h] room at 2:00 in the morning.
Well, why was I in his room at 2:00 in
the morning? Well, because George
[\h__\h] Bush was pissed that Saddam
Hussein allegedly wanted to kill his
dad, so we invaded. And then I start to
think, was this guy funny? What if I met
him in Paris over a coffee? Would we
have actually liked each other and I
just kill them? Because a politician
sent us here for weapons of mass
destruction that didn't exist. The only
reason we were killing each other is
because we were born on different parts
of the world. That's it. Yeah. When you
start seeing Ukraine and some of these
things that are happening right now of
like putting us in these wars that we
just there's just no winners. And and
when you've been to those countries,
it's like damn. Like those are real
people. I've watched real people there.
And it doesn't feel real from the United
States cuz we just see it on TV. But I
mean, you walk those streets, it it just
hits. Now, if you just replace Ukraine,
Gaza, those are human beings, innocent
human beings. What do you think when uh
this is supposed to be the person that
uh took out uh Ladden?
It seems like it w it took quite I don't
think that was immediately after he did
it. And seems like it took a a great
deal of thought and possibly education
for somebody like that to realize or to
actually be affected by what we know is
a systematic effort to paint picture of
uh picture of Muslims and Middle
Easterners or anybody associated with
with Islam as evil. This is somebody
who's realizing it like we're afraid.
There's the f the financial support
behind it. I just want
to go ahead
and there's a counterbalance to
everything that we're seeing that really
is the bright line and it's it's the
truth and education and I think that's
what this person was finally exposed to
to say wait a minute you know everything
I've been fed or taught it's it's not
what's true. I think it's the same with
what's going on now um almost two years
after October 7th that a lot of people
like Joe Rogan as you just saw but it
takes time and education and it's
exposing and I say this as as a I was a
Navy chaplain and I was a Navy attorney
uh I served at both in proudly in 1988
to 91 and then in the 2005 I was in the
chaplain court. What this individual is
is exposing is the horrors of war. War
is the most
anti-natural behavior of human beings
because it's not the same as if someone
breaks here and try to harm us and we
defend ourself directly of that harm.
that going to work to a
war where our soldiers are ordered to
kill people that have done nothing
directly to
them. And when the
killing turns to killing of
non-combatants, women, elders, children,
the only way they can sustain and live
with it is if their countries dehumanize
the victims.
I assure you that from the war on Gaza,
there are going to be thousands of
Israeli soldiers that are going to be
suicidal that were not suicidal before
and are going to live the rest of their
lives thinking, should I take my life
today? We're seen. We've seen that.
Yeah, exactly. This is the the the the
price that our veterans pay, especially
when you wage wars that are not clearly
a defensive war of your country. When
you go to Vietnam, when you go to to the
Far East to engage in wars with people
that have done nothing, absolutely
nothing against us or our country. Uh
what have the Gassans done against
America for us to aid in the order of
billions of dollars and military
intelligence for that crimes to be
happening? What have the people of Gaza
done to the United States of America to
deserve the 17,000 childrens to be
murdered in a year by any country? We
have a very loose tongue calling Putin a
war criminal. Putin have not killed
17,000 Ukrainian children and we call
him a war criminal. What do we call that
person responsible of killing 17,000
children? But we are too shy. We are too
scared. I mean the general not the
Muslim community, the general American
community to stand for
justice and all of us will need and all
of those in power will need to give an
account to their children and go and
grandchildren. You were a politician
when this war was happening. What were
you doing? Oh, I was approving thousands
of millions of dollars and bombs to be
thrown on these people. The equivalent
of five Hiroshima Nagasaki atomic bombs.
The equivalent of five atomic bombs have
been dropped in bombs in
Gaza. That is not atomic is the only
difference. But the TNT power of the
bombs thrown there is equivalent to five
atomic bombs. And we still a lot of
people in our society try to drink the
pill that something. It's a war. This
happened like in any other war. A war
where we don't
see an army. We don't see an air force.
We don't see a navy. We just might see
some
militias. And killing militias are
where will not give you an excuse to
kill 17,000 children. I'm not talking
about the pregnant womans that were
killed. I'm not talking about the
thousands of elders that were killed.
And I'm not talking about many other war
crimes that are war crimes if any
country does it anywhere in the world.
Destroying schools, destroying
hospitals, destroying uh shelters, and
what is worse, openly the leadership of
a country openly advocating to starve a
civilian population as a as a weapon of
war. that open discussion of the highest
ranks of the Israeli government people
in the military and in the civilian
government advocating for the cleansing
of all Gaza ethnic cleansing here in
America Randy Fine but Randy Fine says
that Omar brought is not liked
Islamophobic statements he's saying
statements like nuke
Gaza when someone posted a a a picture
of a dead child. He said keep them
coming, keep killing them. So that type
of discourse to be
publicly stated and without any
significant reaction to the
organizations this individual belongs to
being the party, the political party or
any organization is worrisome because
this is these are the people who are
enacting the federal laws. is a federal
representative in the House of
Representatives. So that
inconsequential anti-Muslim, anti-Arab
hate
or
that is totally the opposite when people
elicit any and it should be like it
should be the opposite. People that
relate any anti-Arab, anti-Muslim
statement should be treated the same
with the same rigor of the law of those
who do any anti-semitic statement or
commit any anti-semitic crime. It's the
same. But you when you differentiate
what you're putting in danger is not the
Muslim the minority community that
you're
living with that that crime unsolved.
You're really hurting the whole justice
system the whole community because any
religious minority will not feel
safe as the same as hundreds of years
ago. Why the Mormons ended up in Utah.
It was a very inhospitable place. Why
they ended up there? Because they were
prosecuted. They were looking for a safe
space and they established there. And
now they're thriving.
There was a time in America that that
Catholics were not allowed to con to
build and construct churches in New
York. Those are conceivable things for
Christians. But this is our passive, our
religion. So this is a political system
that the rights are not given freely
given and recognized to you. The rights
are there but you need to learn them,
grab them and exercise them and assert
them being assured that you know them
and that you know that the the law is
behind you and that you know that the
constitution be is behind you. If our
community is empowered with that type of
knowledge, knowing the rights when
they're travel, knowing the rights in
their employment, knowing the rights as
a student, knowing the rights as an
employer, knowing the rights when
interacting with law enforcement, if
they're empowered with that, they will
become stronger citizens and citizens
that are not feared but respected.
You know, as we conclude, go ahead. What
were you going to say? When we sued the
governor in uh end of
2023, what we were telling everybody and
it still stands is that, you know, this
this was not a Muslim thing. It's a
constitutional thing. When they were
trying to shut down students for justice
in Palestine, this was not for for
Muslims. It was for protection of our
freedom of speech under the
Constitution. And don't ask the top
colleges because they don't know any
better. Don't ask Harvard or Colombia
because they don't know any better.
Don't ask physicians who are being
fired. Some of the top scholars in the
United States because they don't know
any better either. And you know what?
Don't ask Jews who believe in free
Palestine because they're not true Jews.
And that's actually what we hear from
Zionists. We've heard it from the mayor
of Miami Beach calling a Jewish person
not Jewish just for calling out the
genocide. And that what I think is that
is uttering complete denial.
Let's spend uh just a couple minutes
before we conclude going back and
talking about this beauty of Islam that
is drawing people to it despite all of
the the hate, the misinformation, the
billion dollar industry and all of this
push to get people frightened about
Islam. Manufactured fear. You go to a
movie theater and then you know it's
nothing real. It's manufactured fear
that they want to get you scared. You
look for that. So people are scared of
something that they really shouldn't be
scared of. They're scared of Islam. But
if they sit with someone like you, with
you, if they sit with a Muslim, a
scholar, they visit a M. And we want
people to visit mosque. They we want
people to come and talk with us, ask
these questions. And I'm sure after some
proper education, break bread with us,
talk with us. Perceptions can change. So
what is it I mean now that's drawing
people? Would you say someone like you
also now there's your story out there
who you also looked into Islam for
yourself. You didn't take what the media
was telling you or what these hate
provocatories are saying. You opened up
the Quran for yourself. You studied
Islam and it brought you to Islam. What
is it? What would you say to the people
who are out there tuning in and they're
like they've been fed all of this
information. They're they're literally
they're they're they have a legit fear
of the unknown. I believe uh if I I may
propose to a non-Muslim to go ahead and
hear it from no one. Get a Quran and
read the
Quran. Hear it from no one. Read it and
come to your own
conclusions. I'm not saying that it's
guaranteed that you're going to embrace
or not embrace Islam. But what is going
to be guaranteed is that you will
understand 1/4 of the population that
you probably do not
understand. And living a life ignorant
of the true practice of almost two
billion people around the world uh is is
is not a good way to live, right? Uh
uh travel if you can travel.
try to personally meet uh uh Muslims.
Like I said, the probabilities of you
ending up working with a Muslim coworker
or your teacher of your kid to be a
Muslim or your student at your your
college student son being taught by a
Muslim in college or being treated in
any of the hospitals by the tens of
thousands of medical doctors that are
Muslims that work in Florida. uh
uh will will will change your
perspective. When the Islamic Center of
Fort Pios was burned out, a lady who had
was a cancer patient who was not Muslim
was standing out for the Muslims in the
mosque because the imam of the mosque
was her personal doctors during her all
her treatments for throughout all her
life in four years. Ahat treated her
with respect and with mercy and where
his Islamic center was burned even
though she was not Muslim. She was
standing
there. Why? Because if you practice any
of the Abrahamic religions,
um, if you consider yourself a true
practitioner of Judaism, of
Christianity, of Islam, and there is no
mercy or no justice in your
equation of your
religion, you need to review it because
nothing that is justice,
mercy can come from any of those three
Abrahamic religions that after all
recognize our Lord, the creator as the
supreme
lord. If you're practicing a religion
that recognize our lord as the creator
and your
lord
and in that equation says there are some
justification for
injustices, you need to review it. Mhm.
You are not a true Jew if you think that
of Judaism. You're not a true Christian
if you think that of Christianity. And
you're not a true Muslim if you think
that of Islam. Only perfect justice can
come from any of the religions
that recognize Allah as the creator and
the only
Lord. Alhamdulillah. We've made so many
alliances in the past few years just
from joining uh the common cause. And I
think this is really a stress test at
these times of how um tightlyknit the
community can stand together, can show
up. And what I tell the Muslim community
now is just show up. Show up and show up
together. Um if you want to be the
change or see the change you want in
your community, you have to show up to
the committee meetings, um your local
meetings as best as you can. That's one
thing that I think if it had happened
more in the past, we would have seen
more change now. So all we can do now is
do it now. And that's showing up in
Thank you for coming down and thank you
for covering this. Uh inshallah this
could be a benefit for many. And for
those out there who uh would like to
follow the brilliant advice that you g
that you gave. Okay. They can follow our
our workplace care Florida caref.org or
carefully with in all social media. And
if they want to follow me is my name,
Wilfredo Ahmed
in in Instagram. So you're you're there
in South Florida. We are physically in
South Florida, but we serve the whole
state. Whole state. Same with you. Yeah,
we're in the South Florida office. It's
your office. We handle cases of racial
and religious discrimination. We educate
the community and really uh letting
everybody know that right now,
especially right now, it's important to
show up. Show up together. Um we're in
this together. Inshallah. I've been
blessed with devouting the last 13 14
years of my professional life to care
Florida. Uh the reason that moved me is
is is our our purpose that is is to
serve our community and and allow them
to freely practice their religion in
this beautiful country. That's what we
want to do. May God Almighty Allah
reward both
you and if uh you want to take
Wilfredo's advice and you want to open
up this book, I'll make it very easy for
you. It's a gift from me to you. Go to
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